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Boy, my Atkins diet has not been going well. Yes sir, I've been hitting the carbs pretty hard this past year in search of Chicago's best noodles. And looking back on 12 months' worth of Knockout Noodles columns, I feel confident when I say this is an exciting time to be a noodle lover in this town.

If any significant trend has emerged over the past year, it's that more restaurants have made the decision to bring noodle-making under their own roofs. I couldn't endorse this practice more; in most cases restaurants producing their fresh pasta, ramen noodles, or what have you in-house trumps in quality and personality anything they could get commercially. The most ambitious housemade noodle program to appear this year is certainly at Nellcôte, where chef Jared Van Camp and company are milling their own grains at the restaurant in order to supply fresh and carefully prepared flours for the breads, pastas, and pizzas.

In another welcome turn, ramen seems to be gaining a greater and greater foothold in Chicago. I'm looking forward to trying in 2013 Yusho's Sunday noodle offerings and the ramen-house newcomer Oiistar. I was very impressed by a trio of ramen dishes I had Recently at The Aviary, of all places; it's a shame they're likely to disappear come New Year's Day.

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Roger has been a Serious Eats contributor since 2011. In that time he's written columns about noodles and vegetarian fare, and covered the world of spirits and cocktails from a variety of angles. After a long, calorie-laden immersion in Chicago's dining scene, he's returned to his homeland of New York, somehow still hungry and thirsty.